Where to start w/ Piers Anthony?

[AuroraGyps]

I have a ton of Piers Anthony books, with a few completed series included in the bunch, but I'm not sure where to start. Part of me thinks Xanth, but there are alot of books in that world. I think I'd rather start with something a bit smaller, but more than a trilogy is ok. Any recommendations?

 

[Hypersmurf]

I have a ton of Piers Anthony books, with a few completed series included in the bunch, but I'm not sure where to start. Part of me thinks Xanth, but there are alot of books in that world. I think I'd rather start with something a bit smaller, but more than a trilogy is ok. Any recommendations?

Incarnations of Immortality or Split Infinity.

(Although I found all the Phaze books after the original trilogy pretty painful to read...)

I was a big Piers Anthony fan up until about 14... now I find he makes me cringe

-Hyp.

 

[kingamy]

As long as you read them in order, the Xanth books don't follow one another plot-wise really. There is world continuity, but each book stands on its own. Personally, I can only read about 2-3 Xanth books in a row without needing a change for a while.

Any of Incarnations of Immortality, Split Infinity, or Bio of a Space Tyrant would be good places to start, if you like to read things in clumps.

I personally get as much of a kick out of his author notes as I do out of the books themselves. It's almost worth reading his entire output in chronological order of publishing, just to get the author notes in the right order.

Mike
Grande Prairie, AB, Canada

 

[Pielorinho]

It's all about the environment, really, with Piers Anthony. You want to unplug the phone, pour yourself a nice glass of wine, take the book to your favorite comfy chair, have a blanket nearby, and a trash can. Throw the book in the trash can and drink your wine and curl up in the chair with the blanket on you.

Daniel
not Piers Anthony's biggest fan

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

I would recommend Incarnations of Immortality or Bio of a Space Tyrant interspersed with a little Xanth silliness.

Xanth just got too silly for me by the time I hit the 22nd book in the series. Incarnations or Bio are much more my style nowadays. I've been off and on rereading the Incarnations series. I should lok into rereading Bio one of these days.

Split Infinity was a series I enjoyed when I read it, but that was almost ten years ago or so. But yes, after the first three books, it kind of takes a nose dive quality wise.

 

[buzzard]

OK my guide to reading Piers Anthony:
Start with On a Pale Horse. This is an amusing book. It's better if you're about 14. Continue with Bearing an Hourglass. This one is OK, but not great.

At this point seriously consider finding a used book store which buys books at good prices. I really can't recommend any of his other books. The Incarnations of Immortality goes pretty much to hell after those two. When Anthony gets to be such a wuss that even the Devil isn't a bad guy, you just can't see the point.

buzzard

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Don't.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What's really weird about the Incarnations of Immortality series is that as the books got worse the author's notes got better.

 

[Piratecat]

It would be snarky of me to say "In the rubbish bin."

Seriously, I've found that Piers Anthony gets progressively worse the more books in a series he writes. The first book or two of Xanth were great. The first two Apprentice Adept books were quite good. The first "Incarnations" book was pretty interesting. But for me, time and again the quality of writing and plotting sink steadily. That's frustrating to me, and has led to an underlying (but perhaps undue) feeling of betrayal that now colors my opinion of all of his works.

 

[LordVyreth]

Ah, Piers Anthony. Brilliant world-builder, creative storyteller, has more issues than a high school full of teenagers.

I was another huge fan of his back in my teenaged years, but have lost interest in him as I went into my twenties. It definately helps if you read his stuff when a teenager, as his approach to sexuality tends to go from "fascinating" to "creepy" somewhere along the line. I also second that his series' get steadily worse at some point. I thought the first trilogy of the Apprentice Adept to be better than the second (thought that might be because the second trilogy uses way to much of Piers' warped concept of honor.) And the seventh book was just weird.

As for Xanth, I recommend reading them in order, mostly because that's another series that largely degrades with time. I found the first fifteen or so to be enjoyable, but it starts to degrade around Demons Don't Dream. The puns start to become excessive, and they overuse the weird "moon" concept and the Demon Xanth "Save the Universe" plots.